We all laugh, we laugh about a great number of things, but why? There are multitude of reasons why we find something funny and basic rules and protocols for creating a hilarious piece. Lysistrata, an ancient comedy piece that was originally preformed in 411 BCE uses rich and numerous of different methods to create an overall humorous play. The overall plot is that Athens and Sparta are at war and the wives of both city-states want the conflict to end so they go on a sex strike in order to persuade their husbands to attempt to end the war, due to the bankrupt situation of the two city-states. The play uses various methods such as bringing certain stereotypical character types that are found in a great number of comedies. One example is the use …show more content…
Myrrhine has “agreed” to relieve her husband of his built up tensions, however she plans to remain loyal to oath and take advantage of her husband’s weakness in order to achieve the goal of the oath of obtaining peace between the city states. After she “agrees”, she continually goes off to obtain a new item for sex, such as a mattress sheets and pillows, to stretch her husband’s patience to the maximum. He continuously thinks he will end up making love to his wife, yet the audience knows that he will be left there unsatisfied. The use of dramatic irony in this scenario incites humor because of the suffering of Cinesias that we know will continue. As the scene is drawn on, the level of humor continuously rises because of the increasing suspense of the situation, where we are always wondering if she will end his suffering but then goes off again leaving him again to suffer. Also since this suffering doesn’t affect anyone in the audience, the audience can find it more enjoyable. “It makes us laugh because it reveals the reciprocal interface of two independent series, the real source of the comic effect” (Bergson 49). The two independent series being the reality that Cinesias sees and the one that the audience sees. Also Dr. Ress of Boston University says that the bit is much funnier if “the audience is safe” from the attacks of the comedy. This specific display of satire is refered to as comedy by Highet , “the purpose of comedy … is to cause painless undestructive laughter at human weakness and inguirities”( Highet 154). Another type of satire that Highet refers to that also is used to create humor in Lysistrata is called farce which is a close relative to